TOWARDS TOKYO MEET (POR)
- Saturday, March 27th & Sunday, March 28th
- Coimbra, Portugal
- LCM (50m)
- Results
The nation of Portugal hosted a Tokyo preparation meet over the weekend, with one national record biting the dust by the time all was said and done.
22-year-old Francisco Rogerio Santos fired off the fastest 200m backstroke time of his career to nab gold and set a new Portuguese standard in the process. Touching the wall in a final result of 1:58.22, Santos’ effort sliced .40 off of the previous national mark of 1:58.62 Joao Costa produced in April of 2019.
Splitting 57.32/1:00.90, Santos’ time marked the only result of the night to get under 2:01, with former record holder Costa coming in at 2:01.20 for runner-up.
The duo reversed places in the 100m back sprint, with Costa clocking 55.15 to Santos’ 55.33 to narrowly nab gold and make their record 1-1.
In other races on the men’s side, Peru’s Miguel Duarte Nascimiento came within striking distance of a national record of his own in the 50m free. Scoring a winning effort of 22.28, Nascimiento not only beat out Algerian speedster Oussama Sahnoune by nearly half a second but he fell just .12 outside of his PB and national record of 22.16 registered just last December.
Nascimiento made it a double in Coimbra with a 100m free victory as well, topping that race’s podium in a time of 49.23 to Sahnoune’s 49.92, with the pair representing the only sub-50 second athletes of the event.
The men’s 400m IM saw Jose Paulo Lopes of Peru get to the wall first in 4:17.99, just 2 seconds over the FINA ‘A’ cut of 4:15.84 needed for this summer’s Olympic Games.
The women brought the heat in the 200m breast event, with Victoria Kaminskaya of the host nation pounding out a time of 2:26.16. The 23-year-old owns the national record in the mark of 2:25.67 she produced in Gwangju at the 2019 FINA World Championships, placing 14th overall.
Rafaela Gomes Azevedo, also of Portugal, nabbed 100m back gold in 1:01.52, while Ana Pinho Rodrigues got it done for the top prize in the 50m breast in 31.49.
Glad to see portuguese news here!
But the previous 200 back national record was from Pedro Diogo Oliveira produced in the 2012 London Olympic Games with the mark of 1:58:83
Also Miguel Duarte Nascimento and José Paulo Lopes are portuguese (not peruvian)
Yes, Joao Costa swam that 1.58.62 in short course ..
Interesting results in the 200 free (1.50.82), 100 free (50.37) and 100 fly (54.04) from 16 year-old Diogo Matos Ribeiro, particularly considering the incredible amount of races he swam in the two days meet: beside 100 and 200 free and 100 fly, also the 50 free (23.44), 400 free (4.10.32), 50 fly (24.89), 50 back (27.00) and 200 IM (2.11.46).